Mask
by 9aza
Summary: One of 28 prompts. Post 1986 Movie. Blackshadow has spent his life pretending to be someone else, but hopefully it'll pay off in the end... OC centric.


A/N: I finally wrote the sequel to my really short oneshot/drabble _Wrong _(But please, don't read the prequels to this, they suck!). Please forgive me for the crappy plot, but I came up with the ideas for this mini-series of oneshots/drabbles back in late 2008 (my Mary-Sueish year) and unfortunately, I'm still not done with it and once I start something, I have to finish it. Again, I'm sorry.

Disclaimer: I own only the OCs!

** Mask **

_Blackshadow was resting against a boulder, exhausted from sparring with his father. He was too young to be training be a warrior, but when one lived with Decepticons -especially in secret- than one had to learn how to protect themselves. The black Seeker was the only one of his siblings who sparred with Starscream; Fallengrace trained with Skywarp and Thundercracker, and Celine was too weak to do anything, even if she knew how fight. He guessed the reason why he was the only one to train with Starscream was for the simple fact that he was the oldest of the triplets and must protect his younger sisters. _

"_You did good today, Shadow," Starscream commented. "You'll be a great warrior someday."_

_Blackshadow smiled faintly at his father's words. "I hope so," he replied. "I don't want to hide anymore."_

_There was a hint of sadness in Starscream's optics. "You'll have to stay in hiding for a while longer, Shadow. You know that." _

_The young Seeker nodded in understanding. He knew it wouldn't be safe to be among the Decepticons for a long time, not until Starscream took command (if that ever happens). He and sisters would be killed if the Decepticons knew their heritage. _

_Half-breeds. That's all they were. _

"_We should be heading back, Skywarp's shift will be ending soon," Starscream muttered. _

_The Air Commander then gracefully transformed mid-jump into his F-15 Eagle alt-mode and took off. "Hurry up Blackshadow!"_

"_I'm coming!" called out the youngling. _

_As he watched his father fly further away, the smile that had been on his face faded. _

"_I don't want to be warrior, Dad. I just want to be me," Blackshadow whispered to himself, allowing his mask, for just a moment, to slip away. Then he too transformed and flew after Starscream._

**XXX**

_115 Earth years later…_

Blackshadow was tinkering with one of Perceptor's computers, trying to find the glitch that was causing it to malfunction whenever the microscope tried to open a certain file.

The black Seeker cycled his vents. It's been over a century since his father was murdered and his mother passed on, and yet, he was still wearing a mask, albeit a different mask. Growing up, Blackshadow pretended to want to be a warrior just to please his father and now… Well, he now pretends to be a mechanic who has no ties to the Decepticons and isn't smart enough to do much besides basic repairs on equipment when the real scientists were too busy to do it themselves. He hated this persona more than first one; at least before he had more dignity. It was an insult to his intelligence, but he had to maintain his mask, for his sisters.

After their mother's death, the triplets felt lost. Their parents were gone, and the two other Seekers who helped them were dead, betrayed by their father; they were alone in this universe, with only each other as company. It was then that Blackshadow realized that one day Celine would fade away like their mother. He didn't want his little sister to die so young, young by Cybertronian standards of course.

Musing on his sister's eventual fate, a spark of an idea formed in his processor. For the next few years it remained with him, growing the more he thought of it, never giving him any peace. Finally, Blackshadow approached Celine about his crazy idea.

"Celine," he started, "how would you feel about living on with us for millions of years, but the price is that you wouldn't be human anymore."

She looked up straight into her brother's blue optics with those crimson eyes of hers and answered, "I want to be a Seeker."

Blackshadow was surprised by Celine's answer. He'd thought that she would be more reluctant to let go of her humanity; apparently he was way off. Then again, it shouldn't have surprised the black Seeker, Celine had always been treated differently from her siblings, like a weak sparkling who needed constant protection. Which she might as well have been.

Next the eldest triplet had to tell Fallengrace, the second sibling, about his idea. She didn't take it well.

"You're crazy, Shadow!" Fallengrace yelled. "What if you do this and it doesn't work? Celine could die, you idiot! Do you want that hanging over your helm?"

"She wants to do this, Grace," he answered calmly. "Now relax, I'm not just going to jump into this. I need to do lots of research and experiments before I can even try it on her."

The silvery blue femme glared at her brother. "She will be old and even more fragile before you are even done building a body for her."

His sister was right. This idea would take years to be completed and chances are that Celine will too weak to survive the process.

That had been a problem back then, but Blackshadow had come up with a solution: he used what equipment he built (and stolen) and had Celine cryogenically frozen and she would remain so until everything was ready. Strangely enough, the idea came from memories of an old Earth movie his mother had shown him years ago about a spy named Austin Powers.

After Celine was frozen, the two elder siblings knew they couldn't stay on Earth. Even with the hologram technology, there was still a great risk at being caught by humans and being reported to the resident Autobots.

But where could they go? The only places they were familiar with were Earth and Cybertron.

"We can go to Cybertron," Fallengrace suggested one night.

Blackshadow stared at his sister incredulously. "We wouldn't last five minutes in Cybertron's atmosphere without getting shot down by Autobots."

"Not if we hail them ahead of time and say we're Neutrals," Fallengrace countered.

The black Seeker shook his helm. "It'll be suicide."

"We don't have much choice."

It took much convincing, but Blackshadow decided to go along with Fallengrace's plan.

Surprisingly, it worked. At first the Autobots had been suspicious of the two Seekers and their mysterious cargo, but Blackshadow told the Autobots that they were Neutrals whose parents had fled the planet during the earlier years of the war that have returned after the their tragic deaths so that they could return what little remained of their corpses to their home planet, explaining the presence of the container they carried. The "twins" were allowed to stay on Cybertron. Autobots always were suckers for a good sob story.

Unfortunately, there was a price. To ensure that they were truthful, the Autobots requested that one of them defect and join their ranks.

Now here was Blackshadow, nothing more than an Autobot mechanic, with blue optics and red insignias. He never was going to be himself, was he?

"Have you finished, Blackshadow?" Perceptor asked, walking into the lab.

The Seeker nodded. "It should be working better than ever, Sir. Would it be alright if I took some extra parts home?"

Perceptor took the computer and said dismissively, "Yes, yes. Take them, I won't be needing them."

**XXX**

Blackshadow returned to his apartment, tired from another long day at work, but he knew he couldn't rest yet. Today was an important day for him.

He went inside the room he usually kept locked and looked over his project one last time, checking if all the connections were placed correctly. It was ready and he prayed that all his hard work wouldn't be nothing. The black Seeker flipped a switch and power from all over of the apartment complex, minus his room of course, went out. Hopefully the neighbors wouldn't find out it was his fault.

The blank protoform he had spent 50 years building started to gain color and grew large protrusions on its back. Wings! It was growing wings, Blackshadow thought happily. As the protoform looked more and more like a Cybertronian, Blackshadow began to feel a stab of fear in his spark.

This was not good…

Suddenly, the power in the room went out and the Seeker saw the protoform's optics online.

"Shadow, I have the parts you wanted!" called out Fallengrace as she entered the apartment. "Hey, do you have any idea why the building's so dark?"

The eldest triplet didn't answer, he just kept staring at the now living protoform's confused face.

The door to the room was opened and his sister entered. "Blackie, why didn't you an-?"

Fallengrace dropped the box of parts in shock. The shock didn't last long. The Seeker femme raised her null-rays and aimed at the protoform sitting on the berth.

"You should've stayed dead, Starscream!" she hissed angrily.

Blackshadow really should remember to lock his door.

**

* * *

**A/N: Oh no! Starscream's alive again! DX

There will be another sequel to this and it will be called _Anger_.

If you actually liked this, then please review.


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